


Am I Dead Wrong?

by cloakoflevitation



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Beach Party Episode, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Gen, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, No Beta – just me and the block men, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, exile arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29574039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloakoflevitation/pseuds/cloakoflevitation
Summary: Rewrite of the beach party episode with a happier ending. Mostly about Tommy and Dream, but some of the L'Manberg gang show up towards the end for the happy ending.***Warnings: canon-level suicidal idealizations, suicide attempt (tried to jump into lava, unsuccessful), canon-level emotional manipulation, swearing. Stay safe y'all |-/
Comments: 13
Kudos: 120





	Am I Dead Wrong?

**Author's Note:**

> So sorry to any regular readers who got an ao3 notification from me, only for it to not be sanders sides content. I've fallen down the Dream SMP rabbit hole. What else can I say? The block men give me serotonin ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

_Where is everyone?_

It didn’t make sense. It was time for the party to start – past time, really. Ghostbur had sent out the invitations, surely he had, because Tommy had asked him to.

And yet… and yet he was alone.

But maybe everyone was making their way through the nether. That made sense. It was easy to get lost in the nether, what with all the lava and netherrack and shit making everything look the same. Although… he _had_ built the bridge so that it would be easier to visit… but maybe they had taken the wrong bridge. Maybe his friends were just lost. 

_Yeah, that’s it._

He took one last look at the beach, the towels set out next to the chairs, the cake waiting in the chest for everyone to arrive and sit around the table, before dashing off towards the nether portal to retrieve his friends. They would be there. He was sure of it.

On the other side of the portal, the hot air was pungent with the smell of smoke and metal. He stepped off of the obsidian, looking expectantly towards the bridge.

There was no one.

But perhaps they were simply lost, as he had suspected. Everyone might be even further down the way, just out of view. He began to walk along the bridge, looking for any kind of movement, for anyone at all, and tried to press down the rising sense of disappointment. 

He walked the entire length of the bridge, holding his breath the whole time, only to find it deserted. He even went into the junction, until he was standing before the portal back to L’Manberg, back _home._ The portal pulsed in front of him, purple light reflected in his eyes, as the particles were pulled through to the other side, taunting him of where he couldn’t go.

“I just want to go home,” he murmured to himself without thinking, before looking around in embarrassment. It didn’t matter though – he was still completely alone.

It hit him, at that moment, that no one was coming to the party. Of all the people he had invited, all of his friends, his _family,_ not a single one of them was coming. Not even Ghostbur.

He wiped roughly at his eyes, cursing the boiling air of nether, blaming it for making his eyes water.

On autopilot, he walked across the bridge to his own portal.

Back in the overworld, he stood at the edge of the water and looked across the bay to the beach, at everything all set up for the party. His knees hit the ground hard, and he wasn’t aware he had fallen until he felt the pain blossom angrily up and down his legs. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. He let himself collapse onto the ground and then rolled over onto his back, staring up at the near-cloudless sky. A breeze rushed past, tugging playfully at his hair, cool and smelling like the ocean next to him, but he could only think of hot, burning air and lava.

He thought of lava a lot, these days.

His eyes fell closed, and he mentally traced the shapes that the sunlight made on the back of his eyes. He was so _tired._

Sometimes he wondered what he was doing anymore. He wondered if it was worth it.

A shadow fell across him, and as he blinked his eyes open, there was someone standing above him, silhouetted in the sunlight. Tommy raised a hand to cover his eyes and squinted. “…Dream?”

“Hello.” Dream took a step backwards and turned, looking from Logstedshire to Tnret to the beach. He tilted his head. “Where is everyone?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Dream turned back to look at him, expression unreadable behind his mask. “Should we wait for them? We could wait over on the beach.”

“I – yeah,” Tommy said hollowly, not really believing that anyone would be coming no matter how much longer they waited. “Sure.” He stood up, feeling a bit light-headed from laying in the sun. Dream was still staring at him, making no movements towards the beach. _What is he waiting–_ “Oh, right, sorry, here – let me just –” The words spilled past his lips as he struggled to pull off all his armor and then threw it onto the ground between the two of them. “Here, I have –” He threw down his axe as well. “Do you need flint and steel?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Dream dismissed him, not digging a hole or pulling out any TNT, much to Tommy’s surprise. “You can keep it.”

“You don’t – I can _keep_ it?”

“Sure, why not? Today is the party, after all.”

The little joy Tommy had felt at getting to keep his stuff evaporated at the mention of the party. _He’s doing it out of pity._ “Right,” he absently agreed. “Okay.” He picked up his axe and pulled his armor back on.

Dream walked off down the path, leading them towards the beach. “What do you want to do while we wait?”

“Well I…” Tommy trailed off as they walked, eyeing the empty table and beach chairs with bitterness. When Dream abruptly stopped, Tommy almost ran into him.

“Tommy?” Dream stood still, patiently waiting for his response.

He ran a hand roughly through his hair. “I don’t think they’re coming, Dream. I don’t think _anyone_ is coming.”

Dream’s voice grew a bit quieter, a bit gentler. “I came.”

Feeling like crying, Tommy forced himself to laugh instead. “Yeah, you did.” He slowly walked over to the chest that held the cake and pulled it out, placing it in the center of the table that he had set up for all his friends. It felt terribly empty with only Dream there with him. “You’re the only one who showed up. And even you were late.”

“I got caught up in things,” Dream said, his tone turning sharp. “I was busy. _You know_ I have important things to do.” Before Tommy could apologize, his voice was gentle again and he continued, “Besides, I thought you cared the least about me being here, so I didn’t worry too much about being late.”

Guilt curled around Tommy’s chest and squeezed. Dream was his friend, his _only_ friend it seemed, and all Tommy was doing was making him feel bad, when Dream didn’t even think Tommy cared about him. “Sorry,” he murmured, sinking further into his chair. The apology didn’t feel like nearly enough, but he didn’t know what else to say. “Have some cake.”

Dream took a slice and started to eat it. For a few moments, there was nothing but the sound of Dream’s fork on his plate and the wind coming off the ocean. “It’s good cake. It’s really good.”

“Thanks.” Somehow the compliment made him feel even more miserable.

Something in his voice must have been wrong because Dream stopped eating and looked up at him. “Are you going to eat any? …Tommy?”

“It’s not fair!” He had no idea where the anger had suddenly come from, and he knew he shouldn’t be yelling, not at Dream, never at Dream, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. “No one cares about me anymore. They don’t care about me _at all._ I asked them to come to a party – that’s the _one_ thing I asked of them, and it’s not even hard to do! And they couldn’t be bothered!”

“I’m sure they –”

“They _exiled_ me! They _don’t care!”_ Tommy stood up from the table, knocking over his chair in the process. He stormed off the beach, back towards the path. “I guess I was just too blind to take the hint.”

“Well we can still… celebrate…” Dream trailed off from somewhere behind him. “What are you doing?”

Tommy went into Tnret and opened his chest. He could hear Dream following him, but he didn’t stop rummaging through his things, furiously yanking stuff out, looking for what he needed – the compass. He shoved it into his pocket and then marched towards the nether portal.

Inside the nether, as he made his way across the bridge, he could hear Dream’s footsteps behind him, familiar and comforting. He stopped in front of the portal back to L’Manberg once more. Before he knew what he was doing, the compass was clutched in his hand, spinning meaninglessly, unable to orient itself inside the nether. But it didn’t matter that the compass didn’t work because Tommy _knew_ where Tubbo was. Tubbo was only a nether portal away. Tubbo was _always_ only a nether portal away, but he had _never once_ come to visit.

“I want to go back.” 

He heard Dream suck in a surprised breath from behind the mask.

 _“Please,_ can I go back?”

Dream seemed to consider what Tommy had said. It was impossible to read him with the mask, and Tommy’s hands itched to fidget the longer that Dream was silent. Eventually Dream took a step closer to him and sighed. “Do you want to see the Christmas tree?”

“…Can I stay?”

Dream shook his head. “You know you can’t. But we can go look–”

“Why?!” As quickly as the anger had sparked in him, it was smothered out, leaving a bone-deep weariness. He repeated quietly, “Why can’t I stay?”

“Tommy, they don’t _want_ you anyway.”

A strangled noise escaped from his mouth. The compass felt heavy in his hand.

“No one showed up,” Dream explained, his voice somewhere between apologetic and exasperated. “Everyone was invited, but no one showed up.”

“I…” Tommy took a step back and hit the obsidian wall behind him. Suddenly he wanted out, needed out, somewhere far away from this portal. Shakily, he walked several steps back along the bridge.

“Tommy!” Dream called after him, still standing at the portal. “Do you want to see the Christmas tree? Come on, let’s go see the tree.”

 _“No._ I’m not going.”

There was a long pause and then Dream’s footsteps were behind him again. “Okay,” Dream agreed, and had Tommy been looking for it, he might have heard the hint of pride in his voice. “Okay. We won’t go.”

They stopped in the middle of the bridge, just looking out over the nether. Dream shifted, and when Tommy looked over, he was glancing down at the compass. Dream looked back up to him and then looked away, saying nothing. 

Tommy put the compass away.

“Are… are you sure that everyone knew? Everyone?” The words clung to the sides of his throat and then hung in the air. He hadn’t wanted to ask… but he needed to know.

“You asked Ghostbur to give out the invitations. Why wouldn’t he have?”

“I… yeah, I know. I just…” Tommy ran a hand through his hair and found a faint dusting of ash covering him. He looked up at the basalt high above him and scowled. “I just wanted them all to come to the party. I just wanted my friends back.”

A ghast screeched somewhere in the distance, and Dream took out a crossbow. He stepped closer to the edge and shot somewhere beneath them. Tommy took a step closer, looking between the crossbow, gleaming with enchantments, and then down at the lava below. It looked… inviting.

“Maybe they aren’t your friends.”

The words startled him. “What?” Tommy’s mind spun, trying to pick the thread of conversation back up, trying to imagine why Dream would say such a thing.

“I mean, no one showed up to your party. They were all invited and _no one_ came.”

Tommy opened his mouth and no sound came out.

“It doesn’t really seem like they want you around, you know? I mean, first they exiled you, and now they didn’t come for the party.” Beneath the netherite armor he was wearing, Dream shrugged. “I’m just saying, maybe they were never your friends to begin with.”

Tommy didn’t want to believe it. There was no way it was true, not of Ranboo, of Fundy, of Ghostbur, and certainly not of Tubbo. It couldn’t be true, it didn’t make _sense –_ except… Tubbo had exiled him. Tubbo had sent him away. Tubbo had let Dream cart him off to the middle of absolutely nowhere and then never once looked back. Never regretted it. Never came to visit.

He wanted to sink to his knees and scream until his voice gave out and maybe, maybe give in to the voice drawing him ever closer to the pool of lava that was always just beneath his feet. But then Dream put away his crossbow and as he did, Tommy saw something that gave him another idea.

“Can I borrow your pickaxe?”

Dream turned toward him, and though he didn’t say anything, Tommy knew he was waiting for an explanation.

“Please,” Tommy insisted, “I only need it for a moment. _Please,_ Dream.”

Wordlessly, Dream handed him the pickaxe.

He grabbed the handle tightly, knuckles white, and marched determinedly down the bridge he had made for his friends to use to visit him. When he reached the junction that connected with the main portal, he began to mine everything away.

“What –”

“They don’t want to see me,” Tommy spat, inching backwards as he destroyed the bridge piece by piece. The lava boiled and rolled below, shooting up balls of fire that sputtered and died. “They don’t want to see me and that’s _fine._ There’s no need for the bridge anymore.”

“They might–”

“No. One. Cares.” Tommy punctuated each word with a swing of the pickaxe. “No one cares anymore, Dream.” His voice caught. “No one but you.” 

He could feel Dream’s gaze on him from behind the mask, and finally Dream muttered, “Okay.”

They didn’t speak any more as Tommy mined block after block, creating a gap between the two pieces of bridge that was too big to jump across, even with a running start. When he was done, he set the end of the pickaxe down on the ground, using his free hand to wipe the sweat from his brow.

Dream appeared in his field of vision. “Are you done?”

Tommy handed the pickaxe back and let his shoulders slump. “Let’s just go home.”

“Home,” Dream repeated slowly, like he was sounding out the word. “Okay. Let’s go home.”

It sounded weird coming from Dream’s mouth, and belatedly, Tommy realized Logstedshire and Tnret, those places weren’t _Dream’s_ home. They were his. Just his. And they _were_ his home now, his new home. He couldn’t claim L’Manberg as his home anymore, not after what had happened with the disaster that was supposed to have been a party. Not after he had been abandoned by everyone.

Tubbo and all his old friends – _where they ever his friends? –_ had taken his old home from him, but he didn’t have to lay down and take it. He had broken off the bridge. He could cut them out of his life, one block at a time. But there was still one more piece of his old life that had to go.

Tommy pulled the compass from his pocket.

“What are you doing, Tommy?” Dream’s voice was careful, thoughtful. Dream was always like that, looking out for Tommy, thinking things through even when he didn’t. Maybe that was what made Dream such a good friend.

“I’m letting go.” He stepped closer to the edge of the bridge, feeling the pull towards the lava. It was a familiar feeling now, a comforting feeling.

“Wait, what do you –”

The compass fell through the air without a sound, as both Tommy and Dream leaned slightly over the edge, watching it plummet down towards the bright, burning lava.

“Why did you do that?”

There was a tremble in Dream’s voice, faint, but there nonetheless. It surprised Tommy. He turned to look at him, confused. “What do you mean? Why would I keep it?”

“It – he was –”

“He never cared about me.” Tommy inched closer to the edge, feeling the heat on his legs, his arms, his face, even from all the way up on the bridge. “Tubbo wasn’t really my friend. None of them were.”

A piglin gave a startled shriek from further along the bridge, and Dream was gone in a second, already slicing into the piglin by the time Tommy had a chance to turn.

 _How nice it must be,_ he thought, _to have such good armor and weapons. To get to keep them._ But it didn’t matter that he didn’t have those things, of course, because he had Dream. Dream was always looking out for him, making sure he didn’t get into trouble. After all, Dream was right, wasn’t he? Why would Tommy need a sword or armor when he was so far away from everyone else? Why would he need things like that when he had Dream?

“Tommy,” Dream said suddenly, and for some reason, there was _fear_ in his voice. “Tommy, come back from there.”

He looked down, surprised to see his feet were nearly touching the edge of the bridge. He couldn’t remember getting this close. Everything felt slow and golden, like looking at the world through honey. He turned around, so his back was to the open air.

When Dream moved towards him, a question fell unbidden from Tommy’s mouth. He didn’t know why he asked, just that he needed to know, needed Dream to tell him the answer. “Is it worth it?”

Dream took an aborted step forward, his sword falling from his hand, clattering uselessly at his feet. “Tommy, _don’t!”_

“Don’t what?” He tilted his head back and held his arms up at his sides, and he thought maybe he finally understood the person that Wilbur had become, when everything went to shit, when he blew up L’Manberg. One of his heels met the edge of the bridge, and his eyes went wide.

Dream lunged forward, reaching out towards him, all blurry around the edges, and Tommy couldn’t figure out why until he felt the tears on his cheeks. He was crying. But it didn’t matter because Dream was rushing towards him, trying to stop him, so Tommy took one step back.

He barely had any time to worry about the fall, to imagine the feeling of burning air rushing past him, to wonder what it would feel like, to sink to the bottom of a lake of fire. A hand grabbed a fistful of his shirt, the other hooked under his armpit, and then he was hoisted back onto the bridge, roughly dragged up the steps, knees scraping along the ground, until they were standing firmly in the middle of a sea of netherrack.

“Why did you do that?” Tommy demanded, trying to pull free from Dream’s grasp, trying to push him away. “Why did you stop me? Why didn’t you let me _fall?!”_ He managed to wrench one of his wrists free, but he thought it might have only been because Dream was so surprised by everything. He used his free hand to attack Dream, ignoring the way his hand stung when it hit the netherite armor.

“Why… why would you…”

Tommy continued to beat his fist against Dream’s armor, trying and failing to pull his other arm free at the same time. Dream didn’t let him go but made no movements to stop him either.

“You almost…”

 _“What’s the point?!”_ The scream tore at his throat, and he landed a particularly hard blow on Dream’s chestplate and felt his knuckles split. “No one cares! I never–” He choked on a sob, unable to say anything else.

Dream’s hand shot out and caught Tommy’s wrist in the blink on an eye. “Stop.”

Tommy just struggled harder, trying to pull away, trying to hit him, trying to make his mouth form the words he wanted to say.

 _“Stop.”_ Dream’s grasp around his wrist squeezed for a moment. “Stop it. You’ve hurt yourself.”

He froze at Dream’s words, letting the tension bleed out of him. Dream’s hold loosened, and then after a few heartbeats, Dream let go of him all together. Tommy pulled his injured hand to his chest and sat down heavily, feeling the world spin slightly. “Oh god.”

Dream crouched in front of him.

 _“Oh god.”_ He ran his uninjured hand through his hair, trying to ignore the way he was shaking. “I almost…” He dragged his gaze up from the red netherite beneath him to Dream’s mask. His mouth fell open, silently forming the beginning of words before giving up and abandoning them altogether. _“Holy fuck.”_

A strangled noise that could have been laughter came from Dream. “You scared me. God, Tommy, what the fuck.”

“I don’t know, I –” He pressed a hand over his mouth, feeling entirely unwell. “I don’t _know.”_

Dream sat back on his heels and looked up towards the ceiling of the nether. He muttered, almost too quiet to make out, “It was never supposed to go this far.” 

Abruptly, Dream stood up, brushing the ash from his knees. He walked back towards the bridge, and for a moment, Tommy was sent into a spiral of panic, but Dream was back in a second, holding the sword that he had dropped earlier.

There was a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go back.” 

Tommy nodded and let himself be helped to his feet. He was led towards the portal and then into Logstedshire. Dream made him sit down on a bed and gave him something before going off to rummage through some of the barrels. Slowly, Tommy opened his hands, realizing they were clutched around a golden apple. Dream was back in front of him again, and Tommy blinked, confused, and tried to hand the apple back. With a sigh, Dream wrapped Tommy’s hands back around it, pushing it closer to him, commanding, “Eat.”

The golden apple made him feel quite a bit better. After he had eaten it, Dream held out a hand, palm up, and demanded, “Let me see your knuckles.”

Tommy offered up his injured hand, wincing slightly as Dream wrapped bandages around it. “Dream,” he began hesitantly. “What are you doing?”

Dream tied off the bandages and walked back to the barrels, lifting the lids to search through them, clearing looking for something specific. He put a few things into his bag. “We’re going back.”

Tommy’s heart stopped beating properly for a split second. Fear stole the breath from his lungs. “What? To the _nether?”_

“No!” Dream froze and then sighed. He lowered his voice and repeated, “No, we’re not going back there. We’re going back to L’Manberg.”

“…Why?”

“Tommy…”

“No, tell me why! They don’t care about me anymore! They weren’t my friends! Why should I go back?”

“Because I said so!” Dream turned around to face him suddenly, and Tommy just barely stopped himself from flinching back. Reaching to the weapons on his back, Dream pulled out his axe, twirling it in his hand with a calm, practiced manner. Tommy felt a shiver run up his spine. “Have you forgotten,” Dream warned in a low voice, “who makes the decisions between the two of us? One of us has all the power, all the armor, all the weapons, and Tommy… I think we both know that person is not you.”

For a split second, Tommy thought about arguing, but then he remembered the past weeks he had spent in exile. He knew exactly how every argument with Dream ended, and he wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. “You’re right,” he relented, tracing the bandages on his knuckles with his other hand.

Dream said his name again, and it sounded like an apology.

“No, it’s fine, I’m sorry.” Tommy shrugged, forcing himself to smile. “Let me just pack up my stuff.”

He walked out of Logstedshire, leaving Dream to finish sorting through the barrels, and went to Tnret, only to realize he didn’t have a pickaxe to mine the ender chest. It seemed ridiculous to walk back to ask Dream to borrow his pickaxe, so he sat on the bed in Tnret instead, knowing Dream would come after him sooner or later.

Going back to L’Manberg made him angry and nervous in equal parts. Before today, he would have given anything to go back, but after the party… Dream had told him that no one cared about him. They didn’t come to the party and that proved it. Dream said no one wanted him around, and it made sense. Everything Dream said made sense.

“Ready?”

He looked up to see Dream standing in the doorway, the sky growing dark behind him. Hastily, he stood up, pulling his pictures down from the walls. When he turned to ask to borrow Dream’s pickaxe, Dream had already pulled it out and mined the ender chest. A tired smile pulled at the corners of Tommy’s mouth. “Thanks.”

“We’re going back by boat.” Dream led them down to the water’s edge, stopping briefly to kill a skeleton that started to wander too close.

Tommy pointed ignored the decorations still set out on the beach across the water.

There was already a boat in the water. Dream climbed aboard and then waited expectantly.

“You’re sure about this? About going back?”

“Get in, Tommy.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Okay, alright, I am. Don’t get your pants in a twist.”

“Do you have food?”

“Well…” He barely had time to laugh sheepishly before Dream was shoving steak into his hands.

“It’ll be a long journey. You may as well get some sleep.”

 _As if._ There was no way he would be able to fall asleep, not after the day he had, after everything that had happened in the last few hours, and he told Dream as much. But it didn’t stop sleep from taking him half an hour later, lulled into unconsciousness by the motion of the boat and the murmur of the waves against the sides.

*

Warmth woke him. He opened his eyes only to immediately close them again, holding a hand up to shield from the bright sunlight. “Huh?”

“We’re nearly there.”

Dream’s voice startled him into sitting upright, and he threw himself backwards, shoved up against the far side of the boat, blinking in confusion. “…Dream? Wha–?” He balled his hands into fists and rubbed his eyes. _Oh._ _L’Manberg. They were going back._ The events of the day before flashed through his mind, and he could feel a headache coming on. “How long was I asleep?”

Dream stopped rowing the boat long enough to shrug his shoulders. “A day or so.”

Tommy turned, searching the sky for the sun. He found it off to their left, hanging low in the sky, approaching the horizon. A sinking sense of anticipation opened up in the bottom of his stomach. He turned back to Dream. “Are you _sure_ we should be going back?”

Voice carefully quiet and controlled, Dream warned, “Tommy…”

He held his hands up in surrender. “No, no, you’re right, of course.” Privately, he wondered if the others wouldn’t just execute him on sight. Could Tubbo do it? Did he have the guts? Tommy didn’t know anymore.

A splash pulled him from his thoughts. He peered over the side of the boat, looking past his faint reflection on the surface of the water to the shapes moving beneath. There was a splash from further away, and he looked up in time to catch sight of a dolphin tail. “Dream!” Something moved in the water just beneath him, and he saw a dolphin swimming alongside the boat. He leaned further over, reaching a hand out into the water towards it. He could _almost_ touch the dolphin–

He could feel himself falling over the railing when he was jerked back, a hand holding a fistful of his shirt at the nape of his neck. He sat there, frozen, before shaking himself out of it, laughing awkwardly. “Uh… thanks for that. I didn’t really fancy a swim.”

Despite not being able to see Dream’s eyes, he got the distinct impression that Dream was rolling them. “Look but don’t touch.” He picked the oars back up and continued rowing.

“Sure, sure.” Tommy turned back to the water, setting an arm along the edge of the boat, propping his chin up with the other arm. The water was tinged pink and gold, mirroring the slowly shifting hues in the sky. He saw a dolphin leap farther away from the boat, once, twice, and then he didn’t see any more. The wind raced around them, salt stinging his cheeks, and he fought the urge to lean over the side and touch the water again.

“Land,” Dream informed him. 

When Tommy turned, he saw Dream was looking somewhere past him. “We’re there?” He was sure Dream was able to hear the nerves in his voice, but seeing the faint dark blob of land on the horizon, he couldn’t help but feel nervous. He didn’t want to be there, he didn’t want to go back. “How long are we staying?”

“I… I think your exile is over now.”

His breath caught. _No fucking way._ “Over?” he repeated dumbly, unsure what else to say. “It’s over now?” He was met with silence. “I – that’s – do you – can you even do that? You’re not part of L’Manberg. Do you even have that power?” The land was rapidly growing closer. He could make out trees along the coastline.

“Do _you_ think I have the power to lift your exile?”

His skin prickled. The question was a trap somehow, he could sense it, in the pause before Dream asked, in his perfectly even tone of voice, in the patient silence that followed. “Of course you do,” Tommy replied obediently, knowing there was no other answer that he could give.

Dream just laughed.

Bird calls echoed across the water, and after a moment, Tommy could spot them in the trees. He glanced over his shoulder, as if to catch a glimpse of everything he was leaving behind, but he could only see the endless stretch of ocean.

It took all of his willpower not to jump out of the boat the closer that they got to the shore.

“I’m scared.” The words were a whisper, barely more than a breath past his lips, and Dream didn’t answer him.

As soon as he felt the bottom of the boat scrape the sandy shoreline, he threw himself over the edge. The water came up just above his ankles, soaking into his shoes and the bottom of his trousers. The waves pushed at him gently before pulling him back towards the ocean. He marched through the white-capped waves, footsteps shifting and sinking into the wet sand. In the forest in front of him, he heard a low growl.

An arrow flew past him, and he heard the groans of a dying zombie. 

“Be careful.” Dream appeared next to him, axe in one hand, crossbow in the other. “Stay behind me.”

Slowly, they made their way through the forest, avoiding creepers and skeletons and zombies when they could, Dream killing the mobs when they couldn’t. The trees faded into open grassland that dried up into desert that blossomed back into forests again. They passed snow for a while and walked across a frozen lake.

A structure, clearly unnatural, appeared in the distance. The moon was falling ever closer to the horizon, and eventually the building was silhouetted by it.

“Is that…?”

“Eret’s tower.” Dream looked over his shoulder. “Were you here, when they built that?”

Tommy could just make out a few other shorter buildings in the distance. _“Dream–”_ He didn’t know what he was saying or what he was trying to say, but something was building in his chest, making it impossible for his hands to keep still. He chewed on his lower lip until he felt it bleed.

“Follow me. Whatever happens, stay with me.”

The urge to run closer and grab onto the back of Dream’s shirt possessed him, and he stopped himself only because he couldn’t risk upsetting Dream, not when he was this close to L’Manberg.

As they walked through the archways of Eret’s castle, the sun rose just above the walls. Their footsteps sounded loud in the courtyard, echoing off the stone walls. No one else seemed to be awake yet.

Dream fired an arrow up at a window.

“Are you _insane?”_ Tommy inched closer to Dream.

Dream fired an arrow at a different window.

Tommy reached out to tug on Dream’s arm. “Dream, what the hell? Let’s just go.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m sure you do,” Tommy said, not sure at all, “but don’t you think–”

“Tommy…” Dream cut him off with a sigh. “Just follow me.”

He bit his lip and didn’t say anything else. The nails of his fingers dug into his palms, and he nervously watched a shadow move past one of the windows.

The walk to L’Manberg seemed to take both a second and a millennium. For the most part, he spent the walk with his eyes glued to the prime path beneath his feet, because every time he saw a building, new or familiar, his heart raced and his breathing stuttered.

Dream abruptly stopped, and his hand to Tommy’s chest was the only thing that stopped him from walking straight into him. Tommy blinked, looking up at Dream’s mask, wondering why they had stopped. When Dream stepped to the side, he saw two figures standing at the end of the walkway.

_Tubbo._

“…Tommy?”

Tommy looked to Dream. He didn’t know what to do, but he knew Dream would know. Dream would tell him what to do.

“Tubbo,” Dream replied smoothly, slowly raising his hand to put his axe away on his back with his sword. “Ranboo.”

Ranboo shifted nervously and muttered something that Tommy couldn’t make out. He watched Tubbo grimace and look over at Ranboo before snapping his gaze back to Tommy. It felt like his skin was burning under Tubbo’s stare, so Tommy inched closer to Dream, standing just behind him, using him as a shield.

There were loud footsteps and then a figure came down the steps from behind Tubbo and Ranboo, coming to stand next to them. Quackity looked between everyone before pulling out a diamond sword, snarling, “You _motherfucker–”_

“Quackity!” Tubbo cut him off sharply. He visibly took a deep breath. “Dream. What can we do for you?”

“Well… there’s been a… development. I thought a visit to L’Manberg was in order.”

“And you brought Tommy.” There was a question in Tubbo’s voice, an accusation, but he wore a smile painted on his face, polite and pleasant, if a bit nervous.

“I did bring Tommy,” Dream agreed. “I think… after what happened…” As Dream was picking his words, there was a faint whistling noise, and then Dream shoved Tommy to the side. An arrow embedded itself in the ground at their feet.

“Fundy! Don’t!”

Fundy, Eret, and Niki appeared from behind Dream and Tommy, all dressed in armor, Fundy and Eret holding crossbows. As they came closer, Dream shifted so that he could keep them and Tubbo, Ranboo, and Quackity in his field of vision. Tommy stubbornly stayed behind Dream, standing so close that they were almost touching. He desperately wanted to talk to Dream, to ask what was happening, to ask what he should do, but he knew Dream had other things to focus on at the moment.

“What do you want?” Niki’s voice was cold, and her glare was colder. “What more can you want from us?”

Everyone started to shout things, questions and insults layered over top of each other, and Tubbo shouted above the rest, **“Enough!”**

Silence fell again, and Tommy thought the rare occurrence of Tubbo actually upset and yelling might have startled them all into listening.

“Dream,” Tubbo addressed him, “Why are you here? Why did you bring Tommy?”

Dream swore under his breath, so low Tommy was sure none of the others could have heard. “I think it’s time for Tommy’s exile to end.”

“Ov– Tom– _exile?”_ Tubbo stammered out a few other sounds, none of them quite forming any words, before giving up completely, letting his mouth hang open.

Quackity took a step forward. “And we’re just supposed to believe you?” He stood with his arms crossed, chin tilted up, daring Dream to answer him.

Dream shrugged. “I brought him here, didn’t I?”

“You’re letting him back, just like that?” Fundy narrowed his eyes. “What’s the catch? What’s the cost? You don’t do things out of the goodness of your _heart.”_ He spat the last word like it burned his tongue to say it.

“Believe me, don’t.” Dream shrugged. “I brought him back. His exile is over. Unless… you don’t want him back.” He looked pointedly in Tubbo’s direction.

Tubbo took a step forward, reaching an arm out only to let it fall uselessly back to his side. His voice was pleading, desperate. _“Of course_ he’s welcome.” He was looking at Tommy again, something heavy and important in his eyes, and Tommy didn’t know what to say.

Dream nudged Tommy with his elbow. “Go on,” he urged quietly. “Tubbo’s waiting.”

Tommy looked up at Dream’s mask, wondering what his expression looked like beneath it.

“Tommy…”

His feet moved before he made a conscious decision to do so. His vision blurred, tears in his eyes from seemingly nowhere, but it didn’t matter because Tubbo met him halfway, grabbing onto him, pulling him in close, arms wrapped around his middle, warm and solid and _real._

“Oh god, Tommy. I never – I didn’t – I shouldn’t have let him send you away – and I – I wanted to visit but – I didn’t know if you – if you’d want me to and I – god, I was so _scared–”_

Tommy squeezed his eyes shut, murmuring Tubbo’s name over and over again, letting himself fall apart as Tubbo hugged him.

Ranboo stood nervously near the two of them, looking between them and the group that was forming around Dream.

Once Tommy was away from Dream’s side, Quackity ran over, raising his sword above his head. Dream caught it with his crossbow and disarmed him, sending the sword through the air over the side of the platform and into the crater beneath them, caused by Wilbur’s explosion and Technoblade’s withers. Undeterred, Quackity threw a punch. Dream dodged and then struck, quick as a viper, grabbing and pinning Quackity’s arms.

“Just because I brought him back,” Dream warned, “does not mean I am surrendering in any way.” He shoved Quackity back into the rapidly approaching forms of Fundy, Eret, and Niki. “If you want me, you’ll have to kill me.”

Quackity’s grin was sharp enough to cut glass. “Don’t tempt me.”

Fundy helped steady Quackity, who looked ready to jump back towards Dream again, but Eret caught his shoulder, pulling him back.

“I think he wanted us here,” Eret said hesitantly, glancing once towards Tommy before back to Dream. “He didn’t exactly hide his presence.”

“Why would he want us here?” There was a sword in Niki’s hand that she wasn’t holding before. “What makes you think he wanted us here?”

“He woke me up.” At Quackity’s curious look, Eret explained, “With an arrow. To my window. But I don’t know why. It doesn’t make any sense why he would do that.”

“You could ask me.” Dream gestured to himself. “I’m standing right here.”

Silence answered him.

He sighed heavily. “Tommy threw his compass into lava in the nether.”

“No,” Fundy immediately disagreed, “He wouldn’t. Why would he do that?”

“He wouldn’t,” Niki murmured in agreement.

Dream ignored them. “And then, he tried to throw himself in.”

“Oh god,” Eret whispered, sounding like the words were punched out of them, at the same time that Quackity swore, _“Santa madre de dios.”_

Niki pressed a hand over her mouth, making a choked noise. “No,” she pleaded, eyes wide. _“No.”_

“You _fucker.”_ Fundy’s hands clenched into fists at his side. “This is _your_ fault! What did you do to him?!”

Dream raised his crossbow, leveling it at Fundy’s chest. “He’s going to need help. He doesn’t… he’s broken. He’ll need everyone’s help.”

“You should go now,” Eret said evenly, their voice clipped with an unyielding edge.

Niki moved towards Tommy and Tubbo, and Fundy followed at her heels.

Eret’s hand left Quackity’s shoulder. Quackity looked at Dream’s crossbow, now pointed at him, and took a step forward, and then another, until his chest was almost touching the bolt loaded into it. “Get the fuck out of here,” he growled.

Dream looked once more towards Tommy, and then he was gone.

Niki shifted nervously around Tommy and Tubbo, looking like she wanted to reach out but worried about interrupting whatever was going on between them. Eventually, Fundy placed an uncertain hand on Tommy’s shoulder, and Niki pulled Tommy and Tubbo close, joining their hug. By the time Eret and Quackity walked over, even Ranboo was standing close enough to almost touch the embrace that the others were in.

Ranboo twisted his fingers together in front of himself, and asked quietly, over the whispered apologies and reassurances and incoherent pleadings coming from the others, “He’ll be okay, won’t he?”

Quackity opened his mouth, only to look to Eret after a moment, unsure.

Eret straightened their shoulders and stood up a bit taller. “We’ll help him. He’s going to be okay.” After a second, they added, “We’re _all_ going to be okay.”

Quackity’s expression darkened. “And we’ll make Dream pay for this.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
